An official observes the natural disaster monitoring system. — Photo tainguyenvamoitruong.vn

HÀ NỘI — An earthquake with magnitude 4.0 and focal depth of about 16km occurred Monday morning in Hà Nội, causing slight tremors.

Many residents in the suburban Mỹ Đức District felt shaking.

The Earthquake Information and Tsunami Warning Centre under the Institute of Geophysics registered the earthquake at 8.05am this morning, around 16km in Mỹ Đức District in the city.

Residents in the quake’s centre could feel tremors.

The centre is still monitoring this earthquake.

Lê Việt Thắng, an office worker in a high-rise building in Cầu Giấy District said that he and his colleagues asked each other what was happening because many felt this tremor. However, the shaking passed very quickly, only about two or three seconds, and did not cause any damage.

Associate Professor Cao Đình Triều, vice president of Vietnam Association of Geophysicists and director of Institute for Applied Geophysics, said that Hà Nội is located in the Red River-Chảy River fault zone where earthquakes with a magnitude of 5.1-5.5 Richter scale have happened.

The recurrence period of earthquakes measuring magnitude 5.3 in Hà Nội is 1,100 years, and the last strong earthquake occurred over 700 years ago in 1285.

Triều noted that Hà Nội is in an area with poor ground, so there is a risk of earthquakes measuring up to magnitude 8.

Therefore, the city needs to pay more attention to seismic resistance, especially for high-rise buildings, to ensure safety and minimise potential risks that could affect people’s safety. — VNS